One of the aims of this book is to show that the gospel of John is a multi-story phenomenon calling for a multi-disciplinary narrative methodology. We cannot properly appreciate John's storytelling art unless we are prepared to expose his story to a comprehensive exegetical approach which has room for historical as well as literary questions. In looking at narrative criticism in part I, I will expose the weaknesses in two current extremes in biblical criticism: first of all, the recent anti-historical bias of text-immanent, literary analysis of biblical texts; secondly, the largely anti-aesthetic bias of traditional, historical-critical methods. In the first half I proceed to construct a method which looks at Johannine narrative at the level of text, context and pre-text; that is to say, the surface level of the narrative, the social context of the narrative, and the historical reference, sources and tradition of the narrative. My rationale for joining these disciplines is not merely the desire to reconcile what have hitherto been estranged bed-fellows. The narrative form itself cries out for such a quasi-metaphorical conjunction. As I will show throughout this work, questions surrounding the narrative form are not asked in literary faculties alone: they are also asked by philosophers of history such as W. B. Gallie, and social ethicists such as S. Hauerwas. What this means is that a narrative criticism which is only concerned with the literary issues of characterization, plot and structure seriously restricts the functions of narrative.